I swear I am going to have that song stuck in my head all day now.

If you were still in doubt as to whether to go out and spend $40 on Square’s latest release in the Mana series, Heroes of Mana, maybe you should head on over to the Heroes of Mana section of our page and check out the game review there. It may help make your decision… or it may make you hate my guts, I’m not sure.

And continuing our series of Staff Rolls, you will now be able to find the Staff Roll for said game… the Heroes of Heroes of Mana… Doesn’t quite have the same ring to it. Oh well.

Expect more Heroes of Mana goodness soon. I have lots in store.

I now have my office set-up again after moving house, although I am still without an internet connection, so I am able to work on a few bits and bobs here and there. Problem is, I have to do it blind, then submit the changes and hope for the best.

Anyway, enough of my babble. The Heroes of Mana section has been updated as follows:
-The Characters page has been updated to now reflect US release names, skill names, and item names.
-The MOB Units Explained page has been updated using US release terminology
-The Magic page has been released
-The Structures page has been released

More to come soon, plus a few other things here and there under other sections. Stay tuned!

After much waiting and anticipation, the final currently planned game in the World of Mana series has found its way to the US shores. You heard it here first: Heroes of Mana is now available in North America, at a recommended retail price of $39.99, only for the Nintendo DS.

In case you’ve been living under a chunk of Gaia for the past few months, Heroes of Mana sees the series switch genre once again, this time taking gameplay into the realms of Real-Time Strategy, along similar lines as Warcraft and Command & Conquer. You play as Roget, a member of the Peddan Army’s reconnaissance team sent to the Beast Kingdom of Ferolia. However, they are branded as traitors by the rest of the Peddan Army, led by General Baxilios, and are forced to fight for their freedom and that of the various kingdoms of Fa’Diel.

The game chronicles the events 19 years before Seiken Densetsu 3, so while we won’t see any familiar faces from earlier games, we will get to see some of their parents, and learn more of the events that lead up to the abysmal state of affairs.

The Seikens Network has already issued some coverage in our Heroes of Mana section, but more will come soon! Stay tuned!

“Hang ’em from a Mana Tree” does indeed sum up their opinion quite nicely. Sadly, Game Informer Online’s review of Heroes of Mana did not see the game fare well. With only a 5 as a score, and most aspects of the game not making it out of the reviewer’s mits unscathed, it shows that Heroes of Mana is going to be one of those games just like Marmite: you either Love it or you Hate it.

Over at Gametrailers.com there is a video preview of Heroes of Mana. There you can see some gameplay footage of the game, but I assume that most of you, fans, have already seen the gameplay.

IGN have posted a review on Heroes of Mana, and contrary to many other reviews (such as Nintendo Power), this one is rather positive, giving an overall score of 8.0.

The Official Heroes of Mana Square-Enix of America site has, at last, launched, just under a week before the game hits the stores. Read the rest of this entry »

Game rental company GameFly have revealed their list of most wanted games for rental last weekend, including games released and not-yet released on all platforms. When it came to the Nintendo DS, Heroes of Mana took the top spot as most wanted game, with its release date still set for the 14th of August, just under a week away.

This puts it ahead of the recently popular Picross, Rune Factory, and long-time favourites Pokémon Diamond and New Super Mario Bros.

Link to full story.

Madness? This is Mana!

We’re starting off the week with a bang this Monday at Seikens, because Heroes of Mana will be hitting the western world in just over 3 weeks time. To celebrate this, I’m proud to (finally) open up the Heroes of Mana section for Seikens. Right now only a few of the pages are available, as there is a lot of work going on behind the scenes here, but rest assured that more will come as it is developed.

And because it’s Monday, how better to add to this celebration than to make available to you a piece of music from the game?

Heroes of Mana – Setup

[MEDIA=23]

But if you thought that was all, you’re sorely mistaken, I’m afraid. Sheexy has started work on another new feature for Seikens, in his never-ending quest to take the site to new levels of greatness (and awesomeness). I’ll let him explain:

The Merchandise section is a new feature here at Seikens, in it you can explore the various Seiken Densetsu related goodies that have been released. I’ve got summaries, images and ratings to help you decide what you should buy or for you to read through when you’re bored.

The section is going to be in the works for the next couple of weeks. So far I’ve got Secret of Mana, Seiken Densetsu 3 and (keeping in line with Kassidy’s update) Heroes of Mana completed and I figure I can knock out a game each week, so there will be a new update coming probably every Friday.

So there you have it, folks. Further proof that we never rest here at Seikens (honest, guv, you should have seen it!).

Just a very small tidbit of info for today, the release date for Heroes of Mana here in Europe is set for September 14th, only a month after the US release. What this means with regards to languages the game will be available in I do not know, but it is good news for anyone not looking to import it from State-side.